There was about $700 billion in that for buying "troubled assets." Nobody ever figured out how to find the "troubled assets," so that $700 billion became a slush fund. It was used to buy stock in banks, and to give GM and Chrysler "bridge loans" to get them to a bankruptcy court or merger, and for all manner of other spending which actually had nothing to do with "troubled assets." It was a boondoggle, and it never should have passed. Luckilly, the Republicans who voted for it are in leadership positions now, so we'll be able to do it again some time.
Any Congressman or Senator who voted for that should have been primaried and run out of DC at the next opportunity. Unfortunately, people who vote have short memories.
I delivered a presentation in an advanced accounting class re the 2008 Act. When I was finished only 3 people (including, to my dismay, the professor) felt we should be bailing out inefficient business institutions. Their criteria was, if it's big enough (GM, TARP, etc) then it's justified.
The rest of the class (~35 people) agreed that Free Market demands that inefficient businesses/businesses who make poor market decisions must be allowed to fail.